1.1 What are dinitrophenols? |
1.2 What happens to dinitrophenols when
they enter the environment? |
1.3 How might I be exposed to dinitrophenols? |
1.4 How can dinitrophenols enter and leave
my body? |
1.5 How can dinitrophenols affect my health? |
1.6 Is there a medical test to determine
whether I have been exposed to dinitrophenols? |
1.7 What recommendations has the federal
government made to protect human health? |
1.8 Where can I get more information? |
References |
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August 1995 |
Public Health Statement |
for |
Dinitrophenols |
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This Public Health Statement is the
summary chapter from the Toxicological
Profile for dinitrophenols. It is one in a series of Public
Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health
effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™,
is also available. This information is important because this
substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous
substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed,
personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are
present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information
Center at 1-888-422-8737.
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This statement was prepared to give you
information about dinitrophenols and to emphasize the human
health effects that may result from exposure to them. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,408
hazardous waste sites as the most serious in the nation. These
sites make up the National Priorities List (NPL) and are the
sites targeted for long-term federal clean-up activities.
Dinitrophenols have been found in at least 61 of the sites
on the NPL. However, the number of NPL sites evaluated for
dinitrophenols is not known. As EPA evaluates more sites,
the number of sites at which dinitrophenols are found may
increase. This information is important because exposure to
dinitrophenols may cause harmful health effects and because
these sites are potential or actual sources of human exposure
to dinitrophenols.
When a substance is released from a large
area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such
as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment. This release
does not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed to a
substance only when you come in contact with it. You may be
exposed by breathing, eating, or drinking substances containing
the substance or by skin contact with it.
If you are exposed to substances such
as dinitrophenols, many factors will determine whether harmful
health effects will occur and what the type and severity of
those health effects will be. These factors include the dose
(how much), the duration (how long), the route or pathway
by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking, or
skin contact), the other chemicals to which you are exposed,
and your individual characteristics such as age, sex, nutritional
status, family traits, lifestyle, and state of health.
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1.1
What are dinitrophenols? |
Dinitrophenols are a class of synthetic
organic chemicals that can exist in six individual forms.
Dinitrophenols do not occur naturally in the environment.
This profile mainly contains information on the most commercially
important dinitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol, which is called
DNP in this document. Industries manufacture dinitrophenols.
DNP is sold under many trade names, some are Caswell No. 392®,
Sulfo Black B®, and Nitro Kleenup®.
It is a yellow solid with no known smell. It dissolves slightly
in water. DNP present in water and soil as a pollutant does
not easily evaporate to air. The taste of DNP is not known.
Commercial DNP is primarily used for making dyes, other organic
chemicals, and wood preservatives. It is also used to make
photographic developer, explosives, and insect control substances.
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1.2
What happens to dinitrophenols when they enter the environment? |
DNP enters the air, water, and soil during
its manufacture and use. It forms in the air when other pollutants
react with oxides of nitrogen present in polluted air. Automobile
exhaust releases DNP into the air. Burning certain wastes
also produces DNP. Wastes containing DNP that are generated
during its manufacture and use are sometimes disposed in landfills.
DNP enters the environment from these landfills. It also enters
the environment from accidental spills during transport and
leaks from storage containers.
The loss of DNP into air due to chemical
reactions with other pollutants or interaction with sunlight
may not be significant. It eventually returns from air to
land and water by settling and washout by snow and rainwater.
We do not know how long it stays in the air before it is removed.
Chemical reactions do not remove significant amounts of DNP
from natural bodies of water. The action of microorganisms
in water may be the most important process to remove DNP from
water. The loss of DNP from water due to evaporation into
air is insignificant. The percentage of DNP in water that
sticks to particles present in water becomes substantial in
acidic water containing particles high in organic matter and
clay. This process partially transfers DNP from water to the
bottom sediment. DNP is not likely to build up in fish from
water. We do not know how long DNP remains in water. Chemical
reactions do not remove DNP from soil under natural conditions.
The loss of DNP from soil to the air due to evaporation is
not important. The extent that DNP seeps into soil from rainwater
depends on the properties of the soil. DNP may travel deeper
into certain soils than others, especially soils that are
not acidic. Groundwater from a few disposal sites contains
DNP. DNP in soil is destroyed primarily by microorganisms.
It may take between 4 and 80 days for the level of DNP in
soil to decrease by half.
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1.3
How might I be exposed to dinitrophenols? |
During the 1930s, DNP was used extensively
as a diet pill, so those most exposed were dieters who used
these pills. Because of the harmful effects observed (cataracts
in young people) the use of DNP was stopped by the United
States government in 1938. Since that time, there has been
at least one case where a doctor gave DNP to patients for
weight reduction even though DNP is known to be harmful. Today,
people can be exposed to DNP by breathing contaminated air,
drinking contaminated water, eating contaminated food, or
by contact with contaminated soil. Other than the air in certain
workplaces, the levels of DNP in air we breathe are not known.
DNP is present in waste water from certain industries. For
example, waste water from a dye manufacturing plant contained
3.2 milligrams DNP per liter of water (mg/L) (1 mg = one thousandth
of a gram and 1 liter = about one quart). Groundwater from
a waste site that was once occupied by a factory that used
DNP contained 30.6 mg DNP/L of water. The levels of DNP in
drinking water and food are not known. Certain people may
be exposed to low levels of DNP where they live or work. People
who live near waste sites with DNP may be exposed by breathing
contaminated air. Children playing at or near these sites
may be exposed by touching and eating soil that contains DNP.
You may be exposed to DNP if your work involves manufacturing
or using DNP. You also may be exposed to DNP if your work
involves incinerating certain wastes or cleaning up waste
sites containing DNP.
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1.4
How can dinitrophenols enter and leave my body? |
DNP can readily enter your body through
the lungs by breathing, through the stomach if swallowed.
It can probably be absorbed through the skin also. Animal
studies show that after DNP enters the body, the blood can
carry it to organs and tissues such as the liver, the kidneys,
and the eyes. DNP does not build up in organs and tissues,
but it is metabolized or broken down to other chemicals. We
do not know if these breakdown products are harmful. DNP and
these breakdown products leave your body in the urine.
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1.5
How can dinitrophenols affect my health? |
Most of what we know about how DNP can
affect your health comes from old reports by doctors who prescribed
DNP to patients who wanted to lose weight. A person could
even buy DNP at a drug store without a prescription. DNP has
been banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a
diet pill since 1938 because of the harmful effects that occurred
in their patients, especially cataracts. Most of the ways
that DNP can affect your health do not depend on how you are
exposed or for how long. Some people who took DNP were harmed,
while others were not, even though they took the same or higher
doses. Although some people became ill after taking DNP for
short periods, other people could take DNP for longer periods
before becoming ill. This means that some people are more
sensitive to the harmful effects of DNP than others. Brief
or long-term exposure to DNP can cause increased basal metabolic
rates (the rate that you use energy at complete rest); a feeling
of warmth; sweating; weight loss; and increased heart rate,
breathing rate, and body temperature. Some or all of these
effects have occurred in some people after they swallowed
doses as high as 46 milligrams of DNP per kilogram of their
body weight per day (mg/kg/day) or doses as low as 1 mg/kg/day
DNP. Some people who took doses of 2 mg/kg/day DNP or more
for short or long periods experienced numbness in their hands
and feet. Some people who swallowed doses of 6 mg DNP/kg/day
for short periods or doses of 1 to 4 mg/kg/day DNP for long
periods had a serious decrease of certain types of white blood
cells that fight disease. Some people who swallowed doses
of 1 to 4 mg/kg/day DNP for short or for long periods developed
serious skin reactions that sometimes disappeared even while
they were still being exposed. DNP caused cataracts in both
eyes of some people who swallowed about 2 to 4 mg/kg/day DNP
for short or long periods. This condition could lead to blindness
in both eyes. If you breathe in, swallow, or have skin contact
with large amounts of DNP, you may die. A few people have
died after swallowing 3 to 46 mg/kg/day of DNP for short periods
or doses as low as 1 to 4 mg/kg/day for long periods. Some
workers who breathed in air containing 40 mg DNP per cubic
meter of air (mg/m³) or more for long periods have also
died.
The effects of DNP found in animals are
similar to those in humans, except that the effects on feeling
in the hands and feet, and on white blood cells were not found
in animals. Cataracts also occurred in some types of animals
that swallowed DNP.
We do not know whether DNP causes reproductive
or birth defects or cancer in humans. One study in rats suggested
that if DNP is swallowed during pregnancy or nursing, it may
cause death in newborn babies. Two other studies in mice suggested
that DNP did not have effects on the unborn infant. We do
not know whether DNP causes cancer in animals.
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1.6
Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed
to dinitrophenols? |
DNP can be measured in blood, urine,
and several body tissues. The main breakdown product of DNP
in people, 2-amino-4-nitrophenol, can also be measured in
the blood, urine, and tissues. The Derrien test is routinely
used to measure this breakdown product in urine. This test
produces a purple color if 2-amino-4-nitrophenol is present,
but similar chemicals can also produce a purple color with
this test. The total amount or concentration of DNP and its
main breakdown products in urine or blood is a better indicator
of DNP exposure. More modern tests can now identify and measure
total DNP and breakdown products in blood or urine. However,
these tests are not routinely available at your doctor's office,
but can be performed at special laboratories or hospitals.
These tests have not been used to tell exactly how much DNP
people were exposed to or for how long. They also have not
been used to predict harmful effects.
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1.7
What recommendations has the federal government made to protect
human health? |
EPA lists DNP as a hazardous air pollutant
under the Clean Air Act. EPA recommends that the amount present
in bodies of water, such as lakes and rivers, should not be
more than 0.07 mg/L in water used for swimming or where water
might possibly be swallowed. No more than 0.765 mg/L should
be present in water where people catch fish to eat, but there
is no swimming.
EPA requires industry to report releases
or spills of 10 pounds or more of DNP. EPA has designated
DNP as a hazardous substance, and intends to cancel, restrict,
or require reregistration of pesticide products containing
dinitrophenols. DNP is also listed as a waste constituent
and specific regulations regarding its disposal are in effect.
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1.8 Where can I get more information? |
If you have any more questions or concerns, please contact
your community or state health or environmental quality department or:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology
1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop F-32
Atlanta, GA 30333
Information line and technical assistance:
Phone: 888-422-8737
FAX: (770)-488-4178
ATSDR can also tell you the location of occupational and environmental health
clinics. These clinics specialize in recognizing, evaluating, and treating illnesses
resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.
To order toxicological profiles, contact:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Phone: 800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000
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References |
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (ATSDR). 1995. Toxicological
profile for dinitrophenols. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
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